Incremental leaps in life extension may prepare us, as long as there are no
'quantum leaps' (these tend to create problematic knee-jerk reactions). AI
before uploading is the only route to social acceptance in my view, as long
as AI isn't seen as an automating job-destroying menace. And only if AI is
sociable, it could turn out that invisible computers are better than talking
ones (I'd bet money on it).

> If you think uploading is possible, that implies that the mind is a> complex information processing system grounded in physical reality. Once> you accept that proposition, there is actually quite a lot we can say> about what kinds of claims make sense.>> Information processing systems are ultimately very fluid things - it is> just about impossible for them to exhibit the kinds of rigid limits you> propose.

Since we're talking about plausible future scenarios it might be fun, being
in the midst of millennium fever, to come up with some. No dates or
predictions, just how you think the next few major technologies will
pan-out. How about it? (And fifty years from now, when we're all six
centimetres tall and living in habitat domes on the moon, we can have a good
laugh at them.)